"Jennifer Effect"

When a restaurant or vacation spot is described as "popular" that's usually considered a compliment right? Yet in the world of baby names, "popular" has become the least popular designation around.

How do you feel about using a popular name? Is there a cut-off point when popular becomes too popular? Would you give up on a name simply because too many other people were using it or is that irrelevant to you?

Would you use a name in the top 10? top 50? top 100? top 500? Or would you avoid one that's on the SS list altogether? Do you draw a distinction between popular and trendy? Where do you stand?

I would not be averse to using a popular name unless it was trendy only within one generation. So I'm fine with Elizabeth, but I wouldn't use Sophia. I prefer not to use a name that's in the top 25 at all, preferably not in the top 50, but to me there is a big different between classic and trendy names.

If I was given a trendy name like Nevaeh I would literally hate it. Most likely go with my filler middle name that a child most like named Nevaeh would get. But if I was a name like Elizabeth I would be fine, actually really happy because Elizabeth is stunning! Nowadays I really do believe that their are two types of Jennifer effects the 'trendy' and the 'classic' the trendy is just yuck the classic is great, as classics names are always fantastic and will always be amazing.

Most of the names I like are in no way popular, but if I did really love a name on the charts, I would use it. Sometimes a name can be in the Top 100 and you'll never encounter another in your whole life. Just depends where you live and what crowd you are in, I think. I'm a Cate, and I've yet to meet one spelled with a C, though I've met only one Kate in school so far, and she's a year younger than me. And Kate/Cate is fairly popular!

Honestly, I think if you really love a name you shouldn't let anything come between you using it. If you are hung up on a name simply due to popularity, I think that's a sign it isn't the right name for you.

The only name I like on this list is Liam and even if it is uber popular when I start having kids and I still like it, I don't think that'll deter me.

EDIT: Heck, I just looked it up, all (besides two, Alice and Cecily) of the names on my list haven't been in the top 1000 for the past 100 years!!

And on the topic of trendy, I see trendy as names like Kaylee etc, and I really don't like the look or the feel of those type of names so it's not really a problem,

Short Answer: I don't really care about trendy or "top" lists. It might bother me if my child was the fifth in their class, but as long as me and my future husband or boyfriend like the name, it doesn't really matter.

Being popular and "classic" is fine. Being popular and "trendy" is the kiss-of-death for me.

Let's take the top ten names in the US last year: Sophia, Emma, Isabella, Olivia, Emily, Abigail and Elizabeth are "classic" names (ones that have depth and a long history of usage). I would classify Ava, Mia and Madison as more "trendy" options (names that appeared out of nowhere and shot up the charts like a rocket). These three names follow certain trends. Ava and Mia are part of the "two-syllable ending in "a" brigade and Madison is a surname that ends in "n" and caught on from the mermaid film "Splash".

The top 100 girls name is Annabelle but that name was only given to 3,025 girls in the US in 2012 (compare that to the No# 1 name of Sophia with 22,158 girls). Popularity also depends on where you live. You may never run into any Sophias in your neighborhood and yet it's the No# 1 name in the country. So unless you have loads of Annabelles running around in your neck of the woods I think you'll be fine with names 100-1,000 rating.